Othersode #106: Good American Duplass / Good American Family with Mary Kay McBrayer

May 30, 2025 The Squad

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Fundamentalist YouTube is My True Crime

January 22, 2022 Mary

Almost too many of them to put on this page.

There’s a stereotype that a lot of women love listening to true crime podcasts. It’s possible that consuming true crime media is a way for some people to deal with the trauma they’ve experienced in their own lives, and that makes a lot of sense. We often try to confront things that we don’t understand, things that disturb us. I think that’s why I’ve been so tuned in to a very specific side of the internet lately, one related to but not directly part of the surge of interest in true crime: fundamentalist Christianity YouTube.

10 Weeks of Spooktober: American Murder (Week 6 of 10)

October 8, 2020 Emily

As has been tradition for 10 Weeks of Spooktober: 2 Spook 2 Tober, we’re just kind of posting these whenever I feel like it throughout the month of October, despite my honest efforts to stick to Saturdays. My bad friends.

And this is also new territory for Spooktober, because this time I’m covering a new Netflix true crime documentary: American Murder: The Family Next Door. Does this fit with a horror movie series? That’s complicated to answer. Some people find true crime really scary. Which makes sense. Unlike horror fiction, true crime… really happened.

I know what you’re saying. “Duh, Emily. We know that. Thanks for the insight.” But I do have a point. In my head, I know that true crime should probably be scarier because they’re events that really happened. And it’s often really messed up stuff. Meanwhile horror story stuff like ghosts may or may not be real (they are real).

And yet I have never been scared by true crime stuff. American Murder: The Family Next Door is no exception. This isn’t scary. To me. I really don’t know why. Maybe somebody in the comments can explain that to me. But I still wanted to watch this documentary and wanted to talk about it. Why? Well.

Othersode #41: Black Lives Matter / Atlanta's Missing and Murdered / Interview with Mary Kay McBrayer

June 1, 2020 The Squad

600full-atlanta's-missing-and-murdered_-the-lost-children-artwork.jpg — Othersode #41: Black Lives Matter / Atlanta's Missing and Murdered / Interview with Mary Kay McBrayer

Join the Book Squad as we discuss *Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children,* an HBO docuseries that is more relevant than ever. We discuss the nature of the crimes, the racial tensions and violence plaguing Atlanta in the 1970s and 80s, the questionable “evidence,” and how well the series works as a whole. Next, Susan interviews Mary Kay McBrayer, author of the new book *America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster.* Then we dig into some listener feedback on *Devs* and update you on all the good stuff on the blog! Read *Mostly Dead Things* by Kristen Arnett for our next #bookpisode on June 15, and watch *Shirley* on Hulu for our next #othersode on June 29!

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10 Weeks of Spooktober: The Haunting of Sharon Tate (Week 4 of 10)

September 20, 2019 Emily

Apparently all the cool kids are making exploitative movies about Sharon Tate’s murder. The one starring Hilary Duff is just the worst one.

To be fair, I’ve only seen two of the three recent Sharon Tate films. I was not a fan of Once Upon A Time in Hollywood either, but I promise you, there is no way Tate could be as bad as The Haunting of Sharon Tate, starring Hilary Duff and written and directed by Daniel Farrands (The Amityville Murders and The Haunting in Connecticut).

I mean. Yikes.

Looking Back at Lorena Bobbitt

April 10, 2019 Mary

Producer Jordan Peele and Lorena Bobbitt promoting the new documentary.

Some cultural events seep into the public consciousness, even if the vast majority of people didn’t experience the situation as it happened. Thanks to television and documentaries, I know quite a bit about the OJ Simpson case, yet very little about the cases of John Wayne and Lorena Bobbitt that happened shortly before. Sure, I’ve heard Lorena cut her husband’s penis off and threw it out her car window, but why? Like Princess Weekes notes in her piece for The Mary Sue, perhaps she did it because he cheated on her, or because she was “crazy.” I never really looked into it, and it seems so long ago now.

The Best True Crime Podcast You're Not Listening To

August 21, 2018 Susan

Wrong Skin, new podcast from Richard Baker at The Age, Melbourne, tells the dark story of the fates of two forbidden lovers in the Australian Outback. In 1994, Julie Buck (age 23) and her boyfriend Richard Milgin (age 24) were defying the elders of their community by dating while Julie was promised in marriage to a much older man. During the wet season of that year, Julie and Richard disappeared.

Why 'People Who Eat Darkness' Is the Best True Crime Book I've Ever Read

August 6, 2018 Susan

There are the tried and true staples of true crime, like Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry’s Helter Skelter and Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. Most crime aficionados have read these, or at least heard of them. They’re the books that made the deadly crimes they cover household knowledge. They successfully weave a specific kind of cultural narrative around the gruesome events at their centers.

The Year is Half Over? Time to Check in on Those Reading Goals

June 26, 2018 Emily

Y’all, I am so proud of myself. Why? Because every year, I've challenged myself to read 50 books over the course of the year, and last year was the first year I actually did it. Yes, I know, I'm a magical unicorn. Hold your applause, because this year, I've decide to make my 50 Book Challenge a little more challenging by joining in on the 2018 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge.

There are a lot of reading challenges like this out there, so you might be doing something similar. Or maybe you've never heard of anything like this before. If you haven't, I think (?) I would recommend it, just because it forces you to read outside of your comfort zone and gives you opportunities to discover new books you might not have picked up otherwise. For me, a lot of these books have been sitting patiently on my TBR list for a while, and this challenge is what's finally pushing me to pick them up.

So now that we're halfway through the year, I thought I would take this moment to check in on how I'm doing and give you guys a rundown of the books I've read so far.

BSG #16: Have Fun In Jail, Bitch / I'll Be Gone in the Dark

June 18, 2018 The Squad

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